"The David Brower Center engaged Caleb to guide us through the labyrinth of public approvals to build our downtown environmental center. Without his knowledge of the Berkeley city government, his public relations and communication skills, and experience working on large capital projects, we would have never gotten this far so quickly."
Peter Buckley, Chair
David Brower Center

Challenge: Opposition came from downtown merchants, preservationists, people who thought the project was too big, people who opposed more affordable housing in the downtown area and those who felt it was a city land give-away.

Solution: CDA Strategies organized the public outreach campaign that addressed these concerns. We worked with local merchants to ensure parking would be replaced. We promoted the building’s green design by a world-renowned architect setting standards in environmental design to counter critics of the design.

We built alliances among the environmental, affordable housing and smart-growth communities resulting in a successful letter-writing campaign and turning people out to testify at public meetings and demonstrate overwhelmingly widespread support for the project.

Success: The project received its use permit. However, opponents staged a last-minute referendum attempt to stop the project. CDA Strategies helped out-organize the opponents and prevented them from gathering enough signatures through an intense, grassroots counter-campaign.